Ray Brown - The Man · Complete Recordings 1946-1959 - 2 CD set

2 cds

Ray Brown had not reached his 19th birthday when he arrived in New York in 1945 and made an immediate impact as a member of the Dizzy Gillespie Quintet. The following year he was part of the memorable Gillespie big band that included James Moody, John Lewis, and Kenny Clarke. More or less simultaneously, Brown and the late Oscar Pettiford became the first significant representatives of the bass in the bebop revolutions first generation. The second stage of his career as a nationally known artist lasted from 1948 to 1951, when his own trio accompanied Ella Fitzgerald (then Mrs. Brown). The third, of course, began in 1951, when his alliance with Oscar Peterson turned out to be one of the happiest and most durable in modern jazz. This set contains all the recordings he did as a leader, from his early be-bop days in the Forties, to the late Fifties, when every jazz poll considered him the top bass player in the field.